San Jose Earthquakes - Los Angeles FC (Saturday, 9/13) pre/in/postgame thread [R]

I watched the replay of Son’s opening goal and the left winger looked offside to me.

SJvsLAFC 09-13-2025 |

 

I think he was behind the ball.

 

Oh, OK, you changed your post. If you go by the grass cut lines looks like Romney may be holding him onside.

 

I don't think so.

He is in front of the defender when the ball was passed.

Unless the middle defender is keeping him onside, he and Son both look offside.

 

Romney is well closer to the goal there if you go by the cut lines. Not really even close. And Son is passive there. Romney is in the darker colored grass portion that the winger hasn't reached yet.

 

No matter who we trot out in D, we aren't collectively good enough in defense....end of story. Just ride out the season and wait for wholesale replacements for next season.

Viera...looked good, definitely a positive for the team...once again, it's really frustrating to see Leroux get subbed when we need to push the attack...we lose his vision and combo ability up field...he's one of the few guys we have who can play quick and accurate in tight situations....and we leave Harkes on the field to basically muck things up...with a bunch of forwards who desperately need a set up player like Leroux.

 

Nope. handball in the box. That’s a PK.

 

It’s both. Son and Bouanga are fast and our backline is slow.

Also, Bruce keeps pushing our backline too high. We don’t have the recovery speed to play that high a line.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Partly it’s roster weakness. Partly it’s poor decisions by Bruce.

 

LaF#ck’s 1st and 3rd goals were clearly offside.
Obvious handball call missed.
The ref called us for fouls that LaF#CK got away with.

That said, we played like crap.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Excellent post!!

 

It was a handball, but outside the box.

 

Thanks. And sorry. I was already pissed at that point.

 

I like Viera's distribution - he generally makes good decisions with the ball and good passes, and doesn't dither too much, but he claimed to be a "destroyer" and I'm really seeing that. I think I've seen him make one half tackle that I recall. I'm sure there are more but he's definitely not standing out as a destroyer. I thought he might be a little one-footed too, especially as he manueverd to take that shot - all right-footed touches. But then he launched a pretty decent shot, at least in terms of power, with his left.

 

Shit game.
Bruce’s fault.

First, we should not have played four in the back. Also, in that backline, he started Rodrigues who hasn’t played since late July, and was crap when he did play.

The dearth of healthy defenders really hampered Bruce, but changing formation is on him. Why did he do that?! We’ve been playing well in the 3-4-3. Not my favorite, but it’s been working.

He should have played:

Arango - - - - - - - Judd - - - - - - Espinoza
Costa - - - - - Viera - - - - Leroux - - - Benji
- - - Romney - - - - Munie - - - - Floriani
- - - - - - - - - - - - Daniel

Clearly, Floriani and Costa are weak spots in that lineup. So be prepared to hook Costa for Rickets and Floriani for (gag) Rodrigues. It’s far from ideal, but given that DeJuan and Nick were both out, it’s what you do.

This gives us more speed in back, and, he needed to keep our backline Back! LaF#ck are a counter attacking team, so don’t get stretched out.

ALSO, we came out flat. We did not look inspired, we did not look motivated. You need to get pumped for a game like this. PUMPED! And we were flat as a pancake.

I blame Bruce and would be happy to see the last of him after this season. He’s cost us several games with stupid formation changes and pushing our slow-assed backline too high.

I’m pissed!

Go Quakesfans!!

 

A couple of interesting comments from the postgame.

- Surprisingly Bruce didn't point to the defense on the goals but to the giveaways in midfield. It's funny 'cause before he roasts a player he always says "it's my fault" but I think at this point it's a pretty empty comment. How is it Bruce's fault that Espinoza or Chicho gave the ball away. We know he doesn't really mean it, but he wants to at least give lip service to "the buck stops here".

“I have to accept the responsibility that we have two of our better players in [Chicho] Arango and [Cristian] Espinoza turning the ball over right in the opening minute of the game that helped create their goal. We have to be better to start a game. They're veteran players and they have to be a little bit sharper.

And Harkes says that the reason Rodrigues started on the right (other than injuries) is that the last time we played LAFC, Rodrigues stuffed Bouanga. But Bouanga didn't really play like he did in that game positionally. Also, he didn't say it, but Rodrigues runs hot and cold. So there is that also.

"I think we felt pretty good, and we wanted to isolate Rodrigues, because he played really well against [Denis] Bouanga the first time when we went away against LAFC. The way they shaped up was a little different, and he didn't receive the ball too much in the touchline. They were running behind a lot. I think we were a little naive in the way we approached that and didn't really change.”

That last comment is a subtle dig at Bruce.

 

They were definitely out to run and gun from the kickoff. I don't remember the last game well enough to know if it was different last time... but it's pretty much LAFC's MO so shouldn't be a surprise.

Bruce didn't have many options on D due to injuries and Dog House limited availability, but he could have had both Vieara and Harkes staying back or he could have played 4 in the back... we needed at least two fast defenders back there, one on each side, so perhaps Munie left center and Benji on the right with Bruno in right center and perhaps Romnie on the left. Hold that line back a bit and add two DMs and I think we would have been mostly fine on D.

Still think getting Harkes and Costa off the field would solve a bunch of problems.

We had two weeks to prepare for that... no excuses this was all on Bruce.

 

Technically we did play 4 in the back with 4 reasonably fast players. Rodrigues was playing right back ostensibly. We were in a 4-3-3. But Rodrigues was coming in cold and out of position. Our offside trap was a mess. And we continue to take risks pushing Munie up to midfield to help launch attacks. My guess is Vieira is supposed to drop back and cover when that happens but it didn’t always happen and that resulted in the 2nd goal I think it was.

I do think Benji over Rodrigues at RB would have been a positive. Benji is a bit faster and has more experience as a RB.

Maybe as a way to skirt blame for his defensive setup Bruce blamed Espinoza and Chicho for the early goals due to their giveaways. Not really buying it. You’re gonna have bad giveaways in a crowded midfield. Your defense has to be in s position to be able to recover.

 

64% possession and it didn't amount to dick. We were cooked in the first half of the game and it showed. Down 2-0 in under 10 minutes, the blame falls on everybody.

I've seen enough of Bruce, he's still playing MLS v1.0 while the rest of the league has moved on.

 

Dénis Bouanga’s hat trick was his second in 11 days, one for Gabon and one for LAFC, in games played 11,000 miles apart. (Photo: LAFC)
• San Jose 2-4 LAFC: Son Heung-min scored in the first minute and Denis Bouanga added two quick goals to make it 3-0 after 12 minutes before completing his hat trick in the 87th minute. The match drew a San Jose record crowd of 50,978 fans at the home stadium of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.

 

1st goal romney kept him on, 3rd goal rodrigues kept him on. Neither were offside.

Reft missed the handball at the top of the box but made it up to us later not giving our player a yellow.

Agree we played like crap!

 

I don't think any coach would do better than him with these players... our defense has been garbage all season but last night was particularly awful. There's no one else on the bench who would change things. Lima has lost a step, bruno wilson has been just as bad as munie and rodrigues (munie was bad last night but has had a better season than wilson and rodrigues), ricketts is fun going forward but naive and makes mistakes in the back.

 

I don't think Espinoza is totally to blame for the turnover that led to the first goal, but he is to blame for switching off in frustration after he turned the ball over. Turnovers in the middle happen but if he had hustled back immediately he maybe could've pressured the guy who played the through ball to their winger that led to the goal. Instead he stopped in frustration and switched off for critical seconds. Can't do that after turnovers. Especially in the hectic opening minutes of a match, you need to be bringing the intensity constantly.